"The pandemic is not over. But Nova Scotians have the tools and resources to make the right decisions to keep each other safe." That's the quote from Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang on lifting most of the COVID-19 restrictions as of July 6th, 2022. And with the reporting of data shifting to monthly updates, many Nova Scotians will be left to decide how much risk there is in their communities without that information. Doctor Lisa Barrett is an infectious disease expert. And she ...
Jul 05, 2022•17 min
No parent should ever have to think about losing a child, let alone losing them to a violent crime. For Dale Adams, she's had to wrestle with that reality. Later this month, it will have been three years since Tristan Reece was fatally shot in Halifax. Last month, Kaz Henry Cox was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years for first-degree murder. Yet Adams says she has forgiven the man who took the life of the 19-year old aspiring football player. That is not the react...
Jul 04, 2022•18 min
The story this week said: "Halifax regional council is calling on the provincial and federal governments to provide a livable basic income for all." And they will be sending letters to the provincial and federal governments to call for an unconditional, basic income guarantee (BIG). HRM isn't the only Canadian city that is pushing for a regular income for any adults whose annual earnings are below $20,000. And with all government programs, it would come at a cost. But there's already huge financ...
Jun 30, 2022•12 min
This week, unionized health care workers got together in key locations for something called the "fight for fairness". And one location was especially relevant; Shelburne. Nan McFadgen is the President of CUPE Nova Scotia, representing around 19-thousand public service sector members, including staff at Roseway Manor. The long-term care facility that used to be operated by three municipal units may end up being taken over by a for-profit operator. And that isn't sitting well with a community grou...
Jun 29, 2022•15 min
In Canada, there are no specific laws about abortion and supporters say that's the way it should be. The procedure in this country is completely decriminalized and as one recent article stated it is health care and is no more governed by criminal law than knee surgery or intravenous antibiotics. A 2020 report from feminist lawyers Jennifer Taylor and Julianne Stevenson called "The Legal Framework for Abortion Access in Nova Scotia" has been shared widely since the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent dec...
Jun 28, 2022•14 min
Even in the face of hateful intolerance, Jagmeet Singh is taking the high road. The leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) recently attended the leadership convention for Nova Scotia's NDP. Ahead of the Saturday afternoon speech, Singh spoke to the issues facing our country right now including inflation (profiteering), the allegations of political interference in the Mass Casualty and of his own power within the dynamic of the supply and confidence agreement with Justin Trudeau's Liberal ...
Jun 27, 2022•21 min
Colin James is glad to be back touring after the pandemic shut down live performances for many over the past two years. His 20th album, "Open Road" is a fitting title as his tour makes a stop in Halifax at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on July 7th, 2022. The Saskatchewan-born artist has come a long way from failing music class in high school to playing in a bluegrass band to sharing a stage with Stevie Ray Vaughan and most recently Buddy Guy. In this conversation, James shares some of the challeng...
Jun 24, 2022•19 min
Indigenous culture is known to be based on an understanding that all things on the planet are interrelated. And that is a mindset a Halifax psychiatrist is hoping more of us adopt for ourselves and the planet. Dr. Marie-Therese O’Neill recently wrote a piece for the Chronicle Herald/Saltwire. In it she notes "Indigenous Peoples in Canada and elsewhere always knew that our happiness cannot be separated from how we treat all sentient beings and our planet. We are all interrelated and in harming th...
Jun 23, 2022•11 min
In 2011, Jodi Brown got sick and she ended up leaving her job as an aircraft maintenance planner and landed on social assistance and in public housing. And it was from there that she became an anti-poverty advocate for people who needed support. She is someone who has a lived experience in finding suitable housing and surviving on a limited budget with limited income. This week, Nova Scotia's Auditor General weighed in on the state of public housing management in the province. And we learned the...
Jun 22, 2022•15 min
Nova Scotia is underutilizing the public housing it owns according to the latest report from Auditor General Kim Adair. There are 20 recommendations from her office on ways to improve the governance of the public housing and the lack of accountability that exists. There are more than 11-thousand units across the province and there are currently more than 6-thousand people on waiting lists. And the average wait is two years, longer for some applicants. Government has already announced that it agr...
Jun 21, 2022•14 min
June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day. According to the government website, it is a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Jarvis Googoo has taken to his social media account this month to share his knowledge about Indigenous History. A year ago, he was struggling with the idea of "celebrating" Canada Day given the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of former Reside...
Jun 20, 2022•15 min
It was a recent tweet from Mi'kmaw educator Jarvis Googoo that prompted this conversation. He has been using his social media account to share information and stories about Indigenous History in the time before and after the settlers arrived in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people. June is Indigenous History Month and there has been a renewed interest in teaching all of us about what it means to be "treaty people". The particular post was about Donald Marshall Jr....
Jun 17, 2022•16 min
When faced with adversary, she's always risen to the challenge. An accidental opioid overdose by her brother more than a decade ago put Amy Graves on the path to activism in Nova Scotia. She become the founder of a group called Get Prescription Drugs Off The Street. From there she ended up working in Corrections in Alberta before returning to Nova Scotia during the pandemic. One day last December, Graves started getting a bad headache that lasted more than a day. When she eventually went to hosp...
Jun 16, 2022•13 min
In the history of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU), there's only been one strike. And it lasted one day. The Stephen McNeil Liberal Government used legislation, known as Bill 75 to impose a four year contract on the workers that froze wages and took away the right to strike. And at the time, the NSTU called it unconstitutional and an affront to good faith collective bargaining. And this week, a Nova Supreme Court Judge agreed. Justice John A. Keith called the law as "punitive" and "vengeful...
Jun 15, 2022•15 min
It's estimated that Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) affects 40-thousand children in Nova Scotia. That's more than the people affected by Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Tourette’s syndrome and cerebral palsy combined. And one educator and blogger is troubled that there's no support being offered to families affected by FASD in this province. Grant Frost says some of the kids who have this condition can be impulsive and can show inexplicable behaviour that can impact their learnin...
Jun 14, 2022•15 min
A program to help Nova Scotia families afford their first home isn't keeping up with the housing market. The Down Payment Assistance Program saw the number of people accessing the grant in 2021 drop by 50 percent over the year before. And so far in 2022, only 12 applications have been approved. That has Dartmouth-Cole Harbour MLA and former Halifax Regional Councillor Loralei Nicoll wondering if soon that will drop to zero. The program offers help for first time home buyers with an annual combin...
Jun 13, 2022•14 min
It's not just academic. She served for five years as a Victim Service's worker with Halifax Police. Dr. Ardath Whynacht is an activist and writer who works for and with survivors of state and family violence. She teaches sociology at Mount Allison University and has spent time with people convicted of murder as well as those who are affected by violence. Her book "Insurgent Love - Abolition and Domestic Homicide" was recently given the Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing. She argues that p...
Jun 10, 2022•16 min
June 9th, 2022 is Early Childhood Educators Day in Nova Scotia. Premier Tim Houston made the proclamation to recognize and acknowledge the important service provided. The people who are doing this work are having a tremendous impact on giving children the best opportunity for success through play-based-learning. And according to Catherine Cross, they deserve see higher pay and better benefits. She is the Executive Director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Nova Scotia and she de...
Jun 09, 2022•13 min
Halifax has long held a historic connection to one of the greatest marine disasters following the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. Not only did the Mayflower Curling Club act as a temporary morgue, the city is also the final resting place for many of the passengers. Parts of James Cameron's 1997 film about the disaster, was shot in Halifax including the Fairview Lawn Cemetery. And now, 110 years later, a Halifax-based business development group is proposing something being described as a Titanic ...
Jun 08, 2022•12 min
The movie Jaws has had a lasting impact on the way people perceive great white sharks. And with the work of catching, tagging and tracking these animals, US-based Ocearch is showing us they are no strangers to Atlantic Canada. But there's more to learn about the world's largest predatory fish that have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. Vanessa Schiliro is a Marine Biology student at Dalhousie University. She's watched as the sightings and increased attention have stoked fears of the w...
Jun 07, 2022•12 min
Corey Roberts was an alcoholic but his mother says that should not have been a death sentence. Jeannette Rafuse Rogers has been in court many times over the last six years since her son died after being arrested for public intoxication. Last week, a judge acquitted two former special constables of criminal negligence in the 2016 death of the 41-year old. They were accused of failing to conduct property safety checks on him before he was found dead in his cell. His mother says she's put her griev...
Jun 06, 2022•13 min
There was a moment when Mark Long had decided he didn't want to live with the effects of his PTSD any longer. He had been a police officer for 15 years and the trauma had piled up inside to where he needed help. And he was eventually able to find a program in California that saved his life through peer counselling and support. From that, Cracked Armour clothing was born to raise awareness of PTSD and those still struggling. That project has led him to buying a house on an acreage in the Annapoli...
Jun 03, 2022•17 min
Imagine your husband passing away in your arms while you wait for more than a half hour for an ambulance to arrive. And the most bitter pill was that this wasn't in some remote area of rural Nova Scotia. This was at a building on Joseph Howe Drive, just minutes away from the QEII hospital. There was no ambulance available that morning. That was the incident that propelled Anne MacPhee into advocacy. She's been speaking out about her experience and the loss of her husband Kelly in 2020. And each ...
Jun 02, 2022•12 min
In a small way, it was a return to the way governments used to deal with affordable housing. An announcement of 37 sites from the provincial land inventory that could be used to build housing, including affordable housing, for thousands of Nova Scotians. Progressive Conservative Housing Minister John Lohr said "While there is still work that needs to be done on these sites, we know communities across the province need housing and this inventory now gives more options to increase supply." But the...
Jun 01, 2022•13 min
Tourism revenue in 2020 wasn't zero. But it certainly wasn't the $2.6 billion that was recorded in 2019. And 2021 rang in at around $1 billion. This year, Tourism Nova Scotia is hoping former residents will come the blazes home or current ones will plan an exciting staycation. An online advertising campaign is underway to encourage people to support local tourism businesses. Darlene MacDonald is the Executive Director of Tourism Nova Scotia. And she discusses the optimism in the industry and the...
May 31, 2022•12 min
After two summers of pandemic restrictions, there's a lot of optimism about the upcoming tourism season. But how it turns out will depend more on inflation and gas prices than marketing and good intentions. Tourism Nova Scotia has launched an advertising campaign to encourage residents to support local businesses by booking a staycation this summer. And while confidence in the business community is at a near record high, consumer confidence has bottomed out. And that has the outcome up in the ai...
May 30, 2022•10 min
You know it if you've been to the grocery store or the gas pump lately. Inflation is having a big impact on the cost of living with the Consumer Price Index and food prices increasing by more than they have in decades. While the price of gas and diesel may have stabilized slightly, they are still at historic highs. And so far, the Nova Scotia Government has rejected calls for a reduction in motive fuel taxes. There's also the issue of the tax-on-tax when you add the cost of HST to your purchase....
May 27, 2022•16 min
On the first day of the Mass Casualty Commission hearings, people were assured this won't be a cover up for the RCMP or government. And on day 25, there are still concerns of openness and transparency. The latest criticisms come from a decision to have two senior RCMP leaders testify remotely, without there being any cross examination by lawyers representing the families of the victims. That prompted a boycott of the proceedings by some of those families and their legal team. And there is still ...
May 26, 2022•15 min
According to new data from the province, there were more deaths by suicide in Nova Scotia in 2021 than in any other year at 142. A clinical psychiatrist is urging government to quickly address this preventable problem. Doctor Simon Sherry is a professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Dalhousie University. He has previously commented on the suicide crisis in Nova Scotia and he says we need to get control of the situation. Dr. Sherry says although there were fewer deaths by su...
May 25, 2022•12 min
Claudia Chender's first election win was in Dartmouth South as a member of the New Democratic Party in 2017. She was victorious in her bid for re-election in 2021 and earlier this year, she entered the race to replace Gary Burrill as party leader. After the deadline for candidates passed this weekend, Chender was the only one registered. She will become leader during the NDP convention June 24th-26th in Dartmouth. And she is confident in her goal to become the next Premier of Nova Scotia. She sa...
May 24, 2022•15 min
